Chapter 8/11: Power and Leadership Flashcards
Power
- A capacity that A has to influence the behaviour of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes
- Get people to do something that they otherwise would not do
Bases of Power
• Coercive Power
o Comes from a position you hold, firing someone because they are late (to punish)
• Reward Power
o Come in early, and you will get a reward
• Legitimate Power
o Power based on the position you hold
o One rank higher, Manager > Employee
• Expert Power
o Based on knowledge, skills, experience
o Can influence someone based on your knowledge
• Referent Power
o How much you like a person, admire, respect
-All managers hold these powers, but coercive, reward, legitimate are used the most, as it’s the most easy
Evaluating Bases of Power
- Bases of power can be very short term
- Expert power: doctor tells you once to take medication, you take it since they’re an expert. Committed to doing what they tell you
- Referent: you admire/respect them, want to help them, and will do the behaviours they ask for
Keys to Power
• Importance
o The things you control must be important
• Scarcity
o A resource must be perceived as scarce
• Nonsubstitutability
o The resource cannot be substituted with something else
Different Influence Tactics
• Rational persuasion
o Someone trying to persuade with facts/info; leads to expert
• Inspirational appeals
o Trying to influence by inspiring others; referent
• Consultation
o Asking for their opinion, makes them feel like they have an opinion; Reward
• Ingratiation
o Using compliments/flattery; Reward/Referent
• Personal appeals
o Referent, this is why companies use actors/athletes to sell products
• Exchange
o Reward
• Coalition tactics
o Get a group of people (union), coercive
• Pressure
o Coercive
• Legitimating Tactics
o “I’m the boss you got to do this”; Legit
Empowerment
• Freedom and ability of employees to make decisions and commitments
o Give people more autonomy, they work better
• Sometimes empowerment programs fail… why?
o How good of decision making do employees have in that power position, managers may not trust
o Employees may do something unethical
o Managers may give up power, might not like that
o Cutting manager jobs by empowering lower level employees
Abuse of Power in Workplace
• The Supreme Court of Canada defines Sexual harassment as:
o Unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature in the workplace that negatively affects the work environment or leads to adverse job-related consequences for the employee
No dating policy
• Problem is people may have to hide it
Code of Conduct
• Bullying
o People who speak up are being protected more
Trait Approach/Leadership
• Leaders are born, not made
o Military wanted to study who will be a leader on the battlefield
o Studies showed taller people would be more likely
• Trait: characteristics of the person
o Physical Characteristics
o Personality Traits
• Personality traits associated with leadership
o Extraversion (Big 5)
o Conscientiousness (Big 5)
o Emotional Intelligence
o Dark Triad traits (?)
Behavioural Approach
• Leaders can be made: it’s what they do that matters
o Started studying which behaviours are important
• Specific behaviours differentiate leaders from nonleaders
o Task Oriented: Who help with task
o Employee-oriented: Who can support the employee
–Researchers said leaders need to do both
Situational Leadership Theories
- Stress the importance of the context when examining leadership
- Path-Goal Theory
Path-Goal Theory
• Effective leaders clarify the path to achieve work goals
• Subordinates approve of leaders’ behaviors insofar as they perceive them as a source of immediate or future satisfaction
• Leadership behaviors
o Directive (task-oriented)
o Supportive (employee-oriented)
o Participate: Involving people in the process
o This builds upon behavioural theory
Inspirational Leadership
• The focus is leader as communicator who inspires others to act beyond their immediate self-interests.
• Two inspirational leadership theories
o Charismatic Leadership
o Transformational Leadership
Charismatic Leadership Theory
• Followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviours.
• Characteristics of charismatic leaders:
o Vision and articulation
o Personal risk
o Sensitivity to followers’ needs
o Unconventional behavior
• With charismatic leaders they take a chance
• Flame out, something changes that prevents them from lasting
• Charisma: you have this charm
Characteristics of Transformational Leader
• Transformational Leader
o Idealized influence: Provides vision and sense of mission, instills pride, gains respect and trust.
o Inspirational motivation: Communicates high expectations, uses symbols to focus efforts, expresses important purposes in simple ways.
o Intellectual stimulation: Promotes intelligence, rationality, and careful problem-solving.
o Individualized consideration: Gives personal attention, treats each employee individually, coaches, advises.
-has a vision, implements this vision different
-promotes intellectual stimulation
-cares about you
Women and making it to the top
• Glass Ceiling
o Women hit this invisible barrier, and cannot go up anymore
o You can see through it, but it stops their career
• Women comprise about 5% of CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies (Jan 2018)
• Women start businesses as much, if not more, than men do
